


Terrible Lover

by slothemperess



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 5 Things, F/M, One-Sided Hermione Granger/Ron Weaseley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slothemperess/pseuds/slothemperess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes we're the worst to those we love the most, Draco Malfoy can attest  to this. Or five times Draco Malfoy hurt Hermione Granger, and one time he didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terrible Lover

**1.** The first time that Draco Malfoy had ever truly hurt Hermione Granger was in their second year.

Most people assume that it was when he called her a mud blood, but she didn't mind that actually. She hadn't even known what it meant, and so it hadn't really affected her. When she had learnt what it meant, she was angry, but not hurt. She had already expected Malfoy to say something like that to her after she had called him out on the fact that he was only on the team because his father bought his way there.

The first time Draco Malfoy ever truly hurt her was when she learned that he had wished her dead.

"He said what?" She asked Ron and Harry quietly.

"The little git said he hoped it would be you!" Ron said enraged pacing back and forth furiously in the bathroom.

"What did he hope it would be Ronald?" Hermione asked him irritated. This had been going on for the past five minutes. Ron was too enraged to properly speak and actually tell her what Malfoy had said about her, and Harry...Harry was staring at his reflection in the mirror with a stony expression on his face. He hadn't said a word since the two of them had gotten back, not even when he had seen what had happened to her.

"That prat!" Ron continued ranting not hearing Hermione, or ignoring her, she never could tell with him.

"He wanted you dead Hermione."

Ron froze in his pacing and fell silent. Hermione's tail twitched once and fell still. "He what?" Her voice wavered and she struggled with the cold feeling that had invaded her body.

Harry still didn't look at either of them; he just stared at his reflection in the mirror. "He said that the last time the Chamber opened a muggleborn died, and he hoped that it would be you this time."

A silence fell between the three of them and it was suffocating Hermione, but she didn't know what to do. She couldn't find her voice at all, it was as if someone had reached into her and snatched it away from her. Hermione stared at the ground as she struggled to speak, her ears drooped and her tail back to twitching. Malfoy wanted her  _dead?_

Everyone in the school knew that the two of them didn't get along, no one in the Golden trio got along with the pompous Slytherin, and they never tried to hide it, insults, curses, hexes, and punches were always exchanged whenever they met together, but Hermione could never bring herself to  _hate_ Malfoy.

He  _wanted_ her dead.

She plastered a brave smile onto her face and told her boys, "Good thing that's never going to happen, not with the three of us on the case."

Harry cracked a small smile since the first time he and Ron had returned from the Slytherin common room, and Ron let out a loud laugh, and together the three of them went over what they had learned from their little excursion. Throughout their discussion though, Hermione couldn't get rid of the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach.

_He wants you dead._

And for some reason those four little words made her heart break into pieces.

 

**2.** "Oh." Hermione moaned into Draco's chest. "It's been far too long Draco." She snuggled closer to him and sighed as his hand ran up and down her back, his touch as light as a feather.

Draco didn't say anything; he just kept running his hand along his back, his thoughts a million miles away. He couldn't look at her, not with what he was about to do. His other hand rummaged around in his pocket and felt that small slip of paper.

The slip of paper that would break her heart.

Hermione noticed how quiet he was and asked concerned, "Draco, is everything okay?"

"Fine." He replied curtly, wincing at his tone. The two of them hadn't been able to be together in weeks, they had to keep up appearances after all.

She gave him a look and sighed. "Will you tell me when you're ready?"

"Ya." He said softly, bending down so his face was in her hair and he inhaled her beautiful scent of parchment, vanilla, and apples. "When I'm ready."

_Dear Hermione,_

"How are things in Slytherin lately Draco?" Hermione asked him in an attempt to draw him back to her.

_You know that I love more than anything in this world._

Draco gave a snort. "Pansy is trying to seduce me again."

_Love you more than my life itself._

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "Again?"

_And it's because I love you that I'm doing this._

"I keep telling her no." He said exasperated. "But she can't seem to get a clue." He recalled how she cornered him after their Transfiguration class telling him about all of her  _skills._ "I've considered saying I'm gay just to get her to stop." Draco told Hermione sheepishly.

_I can't be with you anymore Hermione, I just can't._

Hermione let out a laugh. "Well if you're gay then I think we have a bit of a problem since we just finished having a brilliant snog." Her brown eyes lit up with mirth. "Are you secretly using me to practice your kissing skills for Harry?"

_There's too much that separates us to ever make both of us happy._

Draco wrinkled his nose is disgust. "If I ever find out who started that rumor that Potter and I were secretly together I will take great pleasure in murdering them  _painfully._ "

_Our different statuses for one. A pure-blood could never marry a muggleborn in the society we have. You would only ever be persecuted and scorned._

Hermione didn't laugh like he expected, instead she pleaded in a quiet voice. "You don't mean that, do you Draco?"

_I can't do that to you Hermione, I can't subject you to that kind of torture._

"And what if I do?" He asked her with a hard glint in his grey eyes.

_But more than that, I was never the man that was supposed to marry you. We both know it._

She withdrew herself from his chest and replied with her chin held high. "I will not be romantically involved with someone that would murder and enjoy it."

_I'm a Slytherin, and you're a Gryffindor, but more than that we both know the man you're supposed to be with._

"Then why are you with me?" Draco asked her quietly, seeing an opportunity where he might be able to make  _her_  leave  _him._ Make it so he wouldn't have to give her the letter, make it so he would never have to read it.

_Go marry Ron bloody Weasely. We all see the way he looks at you, and we all know that he's the better man._

"Because you're not like that!" She yelled at him, tears forming in her eyes.

_I love you Hermione, but I will never be with you._

"Are you sure I'm not?" He adopted that cold purr his father had taught him, the one meant to instill fear and doubt in people's hearts.

_And that's my choice._

"Yes." Hermione said in a stance that spoke of confidence, but he voice, her voice was one of uncertainty, she doubted it. He had sown a seed of doubt into her heart, and it was beginning to sprout.

_I'm leaving you, and I won't be looking back._

Draco took a step forward and took her face into his hands. "No you're not." He said softly.

_It won't matter if you come after me or not, because I'm not going to be with you._

"Yes I am." Tears cascaded down her face and her voice was so pitifully small.

_I don't choose you._

His hands drifted from her face to her throat and he gave a gentle squeeze. She gave a strangled gasp and he applied more pressure until her face turned red and her eyes bugged. He clawed desperately at his arms, and still he squeezed.

_And I never will._

He realesed her throat and she gasped a lungful of air, hurt and disbelief in her eyes. Draco leaned towards her and the flinch she gave filled him with satisfaction and made his heart break at the same time.

_So this is good-bye Granger._

Draco pulled the letter out from his pocket and placed on the ground beside her. He leant into his hair, feeling her quiver underneath him. "This is for you." He murmured, inhaling her sweet scent one last time.

_With no regrets, Draco Malfoy._

He turned and left her shivering alone and forced down the tears that threatened to make themselves visible. He wondered if she would actually read the letter, or if she would throw it away, burn it, destroy it. He laughed bitterly at how he left out the real reason why he was leaving her from the letter. Draco rolled up his left sleeve and looked at the mark that had been branded onto his skin for the rest of his life.

Funny how when he was younger all he wanted to do was follow in his father's footsteps and serve the Dark Lord, yet now that he was, he wished he could take it all back to be with her.

_I've been marked Hermione._ He thought bitterly.  _And we can never be together because of it._

 

**3.** He just stood there watching.

While she was crying and screaming and begging, God please just let it end, he just watched. Stony faced without any emotion he watched. When Bellatrix was having some fun with her carving into her arm he just stood there and watched. When that didn't work and she cast the cruciatus curse on her, he just stood there and watched.

When she begged him to do something, because didn't anything they had before matter, he just stood and  _watched._

He just stood and watched as his aunt tortured her.

As Bellatrix lost interest in Hermione and went to interrogate Griphook she choked out one word to Draco. "Why?"

His stony facade finally broke and a look of anguish crossed his face before he replaced it with a look of disgust and a sneer. "Don't talk to me mud blood filth; you deserved it for opposing the Dark Lord."

Her already shattered and broken heart bled once more for the man who held her heart in the palm of his hand.

More tears spilt from her eyes and her vision blurred as she sobbed into the floor, the tears mingling with her blood that stained the wood.

And he watched.

 

**4.** Looking back on the past Draco would always curse himself on his stupidity.

Treating his father as if he was God and could solve anything (he could only snort at that, how could he EVER have been so stupid as to believe that?), thinking anyone below the status of a pure-blood was scum (he never even followed that one all the time either, Ron was a pure-blood but he still had thought he was scum), thinking that any of the teachers, besides his godfather, was beneath him (he really cursed himself on that one, especially when he was struggling to get a job), the list could go on and on.

Potter thought it was hilarious seeing him bang his head against a wall while he pondered his past thinking about all the idiotic things he had done. "Cheer up mate." He had told him one day. "At least now you know not to do any of those things again."

But he had hadn't he? He had gone and done something without thinking  _once again_. Really, he always accused Potter of being rash and impulsive, but he was even worse. To be honest he made a horrible Slytherin (not that he minded too much now since everyone thought that Slytherins were evil) and he wondered how he ever made it through his school years.

_Forget my school years._ He thought darkly to himself.  _How did I ever get through the war alive?_

And so, this is how Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Man-Who-Conquered, Lord Potter-Black, whichever title you wanted to refer to him as since he had numerous ones, found Draco Malfoy; laying on the ground in his manor, a bottle of firewhisky in one hand while the other hand ran through his disheveled blonde hair, sighing in annoyance and frustration.

"Having fun down there Draco?" Harry asked bemused now knowing whether to duck and cover, after all a drunk Draco was a dangerous one, lend a hand (unlikely since Malfoy's did not accept help), or burst out laughing.

"Shut it Harry." He growled in a voice that would have sent most people running. He half-hoped that Potter would leave, but he knew he wouldn't. He was Harry _bloody_ Potter; he had a hero-complex so of course he wasn't going to leave him alone.

Harry took a seat in the armchair by the fireplace which Draco was laying in front of and stayed silent. Normally he wouldn't have done that, he would have demanded to know what was wrong with Draco to make him so depressed, but he had called him  _Harry._ Draco never called anyone by their first named unless he was pissed off and ready to do damage.

"If I rolled over into the fire and died, do you think anyone would miss me?" Draco mused while taking a swig from the bottle of firewhiskey.

Harry contemplated how safe it was to have an inebriated Draco by an open flame before he answered, "Hermione would for sure."

Draco snorted spilling drink everywhere. "Doubtful."

"Oh?" Harry asked curious and cautious.

Draco stared into the fire, the flames reflecting in his grey eyes. "I screwed up Harry." He whispered in a small voice. "And I don't think I can fix it."

"What're you talking about Draco, you can fix anything." Harry told him nervously.

Draco curled into a small ball, trying to hide from Harry's gaze. "Not this time."

"Come of it." Harry replied angrily. "You're Lord Draco Malfoy. You fixed all your screw ups in the past. You've made it so the Malfoy's are no longer considered a dark family, you've exposed your father for what he really is, went back to Hogwarts and graduated with honors in all classes, you managed to fix your relationship with Hermione, you've got a bloody Merlin of Order  _first class_ from when you saved those muggles from a bomb using your own body." Harry stood up and made it so Malfoy had to look him in the eye. "Your bloody  _body_ Draco! Your limbs had to be regrown in St. Mungo's and you saved  _lives._ You've made it so that you're no longer known as Draco Malfoy the deatheater." Draco flinched and clutched his left arm. "You're known as Lord Malfoy the  _hero."_ Angry green eyes bore into grey. "So don't you dare tell me you can't fix whatever the bloody hell you've done when you've turned your entire life around?"

"But I can't fix this one Harry." He replied wearily. "I just can't." He raised his arm to take another drink from the bottle before Harry knocked it away, the bottle shattering and the liquid spilling everywhere.

"You're best friends with Ron bloody Weasley Draco." Harry practically yelled making Draco wince and cover his ears. "The red head you called a blood traitor and swore you would never associate with is now  _one of your best mates."_ Harry grabbed a hold of Draco's shoulders and shook him in frustration _"_ You sure fixed that horrible relationship, so what in Merlin's pants have you done that you can't fix!"

"I called her a mudblood."

Harry let go of Draco's shoulders, shocked, and stumbled backwards grabbing a hold of the chair to steady himself. "You did what?" His voice was low, dangerous, deadly.

With grey eyes cast to the ground, of course they were at the bloody ground, how could he look Potter in the eye knowing he called her  _that_. "I called her a mudblood."

He was up against the wall gasping for breath before he could ever blink. The eyes of the Man-Who-Conquered were blazing red, the exact opposite of the brilliant jade they normally were. "One reason." He hissed viciously making Draco tremble, that voice, it sounded just like  _his._ He cast his around franticly trying to look anywhere but the man in front of him, because Merlin, he looked just like  _he_ had. Those red eyes, the pale parlour of skin, teeth clenched, and nostrils flared showing how close he was to losing control, Potter looked just like  _him_. Harry slammed Draco's head against the wall making him see stars and roared out angrily, "GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T KILL YOU RIGHT NOW MALFOY!"

The trembling doubled and Draco gave out a sob. "I don't have one." Tears cascaded down his face as he broke down and sobbed out again and again, "I don't have one, Merlin Harry; I don't have a bloody reason."

"You swore to me that you wouldn't hurt her anymore Malfoy!" Harry yelled at Draco. "You told me you had changed!" He dropped Draco to the ground in disgust.

Draco only sat there sobbing uncontrollably. "Bloody hell Harry, what do I do?"

Draco's answer was the sound of a door slamming, and he knew right then, that was the moment his world collapsed upon itself.

 

**5.** "Do you, Ronald Bilius Weasely, take Hermione Granger to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do." Ron said solemnly as he gazed into Hermione's eyes.

"Do you, Hermione Jane Granger, take Ronald Weasely to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Her stomach churned and she thought she would be sick when she said the words, "I do."

The minister gave a smile saying, "Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife, you may now kiss the bride."

Ron leaned in to kiss her and Hermione closed her eyes and imagined that it was Draco's lips that touched hers and that it was their wedding, and as she opened her eyes and saw Ron's smile, she wept in despair and put on a fake smile. "No need to cry Hermy." He told her wiping the tears away.

" _If you ever call me Hermy ever again_ Drakey _I swear I will hex your balls off so that the Malfoy family dies out."_

"I'm just so happy!" Molly blubbered as she crushed the two of them with one of her famous hugs. "I always knew you two would get together." She said while dabbing at her eyes.

"Maybe you're a seer mum." Ron laughed.

" _Divination is utter rubbish." Draco scoffed._

"Silly Ronald." Hermione said in what she hoped was a happily teasing voice and not filled with the despair she felt. "You know that divination is fake."

"How can you say that after our time in the Department of Mysteries?" He asked in shock and disbelief.

" _Why some people put so much faith into prophecies is beyond me, prophecies are only ever self fulfilling."_

"Because divination is rubbish." Hermione said in a tone that left no room for arguments.

"Guess we all know who's going to be wearing the pants in this relationship Ronniekins." George said with a wide grin, the widest they'd seen since Fred had died.

" _The woman is supposed to stay home and raise the children." Draco said exasperated. "Honestly, how long will it take for you to understand this Hermione?"_

" _It's so sexist!" Hermione exclaimed scandalized._

" _No." He replied slowly. "It makes sense. Do you want me to stay home and raise the children?"_

" _Who says we're going to have children Malfoy?" She asked him with a quirked eyebrow._

" _I do." He said stubbornly. "The Malfoy line must continue, plus, how would I live with myself if I knew you had children with anyone else?"_

"How many children are you planning on having Hermione?" Ginny asked her excitedly. "You have to have at least three; they're absolutely worth every moment of pain." She said proudly as she gestured to James as he ran around and then placed a hand over top of her stomach which looked ready to burst.

"I'm not sure I want children." Hermione replied with a mechanical smile on her face.  _Not with Ron. Not with anyone but him._  Ginny gave a disapproving frown but didn't say anything else as dinner ended and the DJ announced the first dance.

"I'm so sorry Hermione." Ron said loudly as he stepped on Hermione's foot once again.

She shook her head and ignored the throbbing. "It's okay Ron; I know you struggle with grace."

" _Where did you learn how to dance so gracefully?" Hermione asked confused as Draco twirled her around the floor._

_He gave her his trademark smirk. "Honestly Granger, I'm a_ Malfoy.  _We're the very definition of grace."_

"Are you happy Hermione?" Harry asked her as he danced in replace of her father. Despite her best efforts, they had somehow managed to find them; her mother and father died not knowing why or that they had a daughter.

"Of course I am Harry, I just got married." She lied through her teeth so easily.

" _You suck at lying Granger." Malfoy frowned. "We're going to have to work on that if you're to become a Malfoy."_

_Hermione was scandalized at the notion. "And why do I need to learn how to lie?"_

" _Politics love." He told her amused._

"Are you sure Hermione?" Harry persisted, his brow furrowed.

"Harry," she said softly, "I just got married to the man I've loved my whole life, of course I'm happy."

"No you didn't." He said quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't always love Ron," his green eyes were soft, "You loved Draco.

My hand clenched his hand and he gave a wince. "You know what he called me." I murmured.

"And I know you forgave him long ago Hermione." Harry countered.

The song ended and Hermione let out a silent thanks. "Thank you for the dance Harry."

" _I love you Draco."_

Hermione gazed at the two rings set upon her finger. Her wedding band was anything but simple, with braided white gold with diamonds studding the curls and shifts in the metal it was dazzling. Her engagement ring, white gold as well, had a large circular diamond in the middle with smaller diamonds surrounding it. It was beautiful, it was expensive, and it always sparkled in the sunlight.

It was the exact opposite of what she liked.

" _So what kind of engagement set would you like Hermione?"_

_The question caught her off guard and she stumbled in her walk. "Excuse me Draco?"_

" _What kind of engagement set would you like?" He repeated with a smirk._

" _Engagement set?" Hermione squeaked in a high pitch voice._

" _Mhm." Draco hummed. "Do you want something extravagant which will make heads turn, something sparkly, something large, or would you prefer a simple ring with only one diamond in it?"_

" _Engagement set." Hermione repeated slowly._

" _Yes Granger, an engagement set." Draco replied with a touch of irritation._

" _Are you asking me to marry you Draco?" she asked him shocked._

" _It's not asking if you already know the answer." He replied with a cocky smile. Hermione gave a huff of indignation and left the room._

_Later that night when Draco was in the kitchen he saw a picture on the fridge of a wedding ring set and a smile crept onto his face. It was a simple design, white gold inlaid with small diamonds so that when the two rings were side by side they formed a complete heart._ _Attatched to the picture was a post-it note with Hermione's handwriting on it._ I want this set Draco.  _It said and he let out a laugh._

"May I have this dance?"

Her heart fluttered and stopped at the same time as she gazed upon the man in front of her. His hair was still that brilliant shade of platnuim, but it was no longer slicked back and was instead styled in casual disarray. He was growing a beard and had stubble along his jawline which only enhanced his features and gave him a rugged beauty.

Hermione glanced sideways towards Ron,  _her husband_ , her mind whispered, praying he would say no. "Sure thing Draco, consider it a thank you."

Hermione's heart sank and soared all at once and she struggled to keep her emotions from showing and she fit,  _perfectly_ , inside the arms of the man before her. "You seem tense Granger." He whispered sending shivers down her spine.

"Weasely." She said softly.

"Pardon?" Was his light and casual response, but she could feel how tense he was.

"It's Weasely now." She said stronger looking into those grey eyes that had captured her heart so many years ago.

Those eyes that still held her heart captive.

"Ah." Those beautiful grey eyes flashed for a moment. "Of course."

"It could have been Malfoy." She told him boldly, her voice quivering with an unknown emotion.

His eyes flashed with pain and he murmured, "No it couldn't have."

The quick rejection stung and she flinched. "You're lying." She said desperately.

"I'm not." His voice was so soft, so tender it made her want to cry. "We both know we wouldn't have worked out. You're the Gryffindor Princess, one-third of the Golden Trio, and I'm the Slytherin Prince, a deatheater."

"Former deatheater." She corrected him. "And it almostworked out." Hermione told him angrily. "And I have the rings to prove it."

"You kept them." Draco said in awe.

"Only the one."

His eyebrows scrunched together in that adorable way that always made her want to kiss him. "Only the one?"

She gave him a nod. "The other is still in our," she paused and caught herself, taking a deep breath. " _your_  room."

"Why?" Draco asked in a confused voice.

Brown eyes locked with grey as she spoke. "Because you will always have the other half of my heart."

The song ended and the two of them stood locked together staring at each other until Ron came over. "Hermione," He beamed, "Mum wants to take pictures."

" _Hermione." Draco said in frustration. "If we're going to tell people that we're engaged then we're going to have to have engagement photos."_

" _But we haven't announced it yet Draco." She replied stubbornly. "So logically we don't have to have engagement photos until after we've announced that we're engaged. Really we only need engagement photos a few months before we get married for when we're doing invitiations."_

" _You're impossible." He growled. "Why are you so against photos?"_

" _Because I don't like photographs!" She huffed._

Draco gave her a look which showed he was remembering the same thing as her. He let go of her and her carefully put together facade cracked just a bit. He kissed her on the forehead saying, "Good-bye Granger."

She took the hand of her new husband and felt her heart shatter once again as she saw the man who had always held her heart walk away once again.

 

**+1.** He didn't see her again after that dance at the wedding.

He apparated from the wedding as soon as he left her in the arms of Ron and didn't speak to her ever again, didn't look at her ever again, didn't think of her ever again.

That last one was a lie though.

He though of her everyday. Thought about their time as children when they argued and despised each other. When he thought about those times he was always filled with confusion, how had he ever hated  _Hermione Granger?_

_Weasely._ His mind corrected.  _She's a Weasely now because you let her go._

After the wedding he cut off ties with the Weasely's. His relationship with Ron never had recovered after he had called Hermione a...mudblood. The very word sent shivers up his spine and it made him ill to think he had ever called  _Hermione_  that word, the woman he loved with every fiber of his being.

Harry still stopped by occasionaly though, but for the life of him Draco could never figure out why, and whenever he would ask Potter would only shrug and change the subject.

He had found the other ring in their,  _his,_ room like she had said. Half of a heart, one half of a whole, a broken promise, a lost life.

Harry found him one day looking at the ring. "What's that?"

"Nothing." Draco putting the ring back into his bedside table.

Harry rolled his green eyes. "Obviously it isn't nothing draco, otherwise you wouldn't be look at it."

"I said it was nothing Potter." He replied sharply trying to keep his emotions in check.

"Is it hers?" Harry asked softly.

He whipped around to face Harry, anger brewing in his eyes. "I said it's nothing." He spat out through clenched teeth. The pair was silent as Draco seethed and wondered once again why Potter was in his house.

"They're not together anymore you know." Harry said catching Draco off-guard.

"What?" He asked confused and daring to hope.

"Ron and Hermione." Draco's heart soared. "They're not together anymore, the divorce was finalized this morning."

"Why?" He asked hungrily wanting to know every last detail.

Wanting to run out of his house right now and track her down to snog her senseless.

"You'll have to ask her." Harry told him with a mischivious glint in his eyes.

Draco scowled, his good mood gone, and said stubbornly, "No."

Harry let out a grunt of frustration. "What is it with you two? I  _know_ the two of you still love each other,  _don't_ try to deny it Draco." Harry said sharply as Draco opened his mouth to speak. "So what is it with you two? Why on earth didn't the two of you get married and have little blonde genius Malfoys running around everywhere?"

Draco's mind flew to the picture that Harry's words painted. Him and Hermione dancing at  _their_ wedding. Hermione smiling on his arm, wearing the two rings _together._ Hermione glowing with her hands overtop of her stomach with  _his_ child inside. He wrenched himsefl from that fantasy and faced Harry. "Because you and I both know that Ron was the better man and the man she was supposed to be with."

Harry let out a snort. "Obviously not if the two of them just got divorced."

A thrill ran through Draco as he heard that before he squashed it before it could run more rampant that it already had. "I don't deserve her and she deserves someone better than me."

Harry's jaw hit the floor as he heard his friend say that. "Did you just honestly say that?"

"It's true." Draco said miserable. "Hermione deserves someone much better than a deatheater."

"You're not a deatheater." He said sharply.

"The mark of my left arm disagrees with you." Draco replied with a dark humor.

"You didn't kill Dumbledore, and you didn't turn us in when your aunt was asking who we were." Harry insisted, as Draco flinched.

"But I watched." He whispered heart broken.

"You watched?" Harry asked confused. "Watched what?"

"I watched my aunt torture Hermione." Both men flinched as Draco said this. "And Hermione asked me why while my aunt was interrogating Griphook, and," He squeezed his eyes shut and his broke, "And I told her it was because she deserved it." He look at Harry with broken grey eyes filled with anguish. "I told her she deserved to be tortured by my aunt because she was a mudblood opposing the Dark Lord. How can I ever be with her knowing that I said that to her in the time she needed me most Harry? How?"

Harry sat there in shock, anger, pity, disbelief, there were to many emotions going through his mind to place just one or two and it was a few minutes before he could find his voice again. "You ask her."

"I bloody well can't ask her Harry!" Draco cried out in frustration.

"Yes you can."

Draco froze at the sound of her voice. "Hermione?" He asked, frightened of the response he might get.

She walked into  _their_ bedroom and sat down on  _their_ bed cupping his face with her hand as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. "What you've done in the past is in the past Draco, all that matters is right here, right now."

Harry silently rose and left the room as Draco closed his eyes and leaned into her hand and gave a sigh, putting his hand overtop of hers. "I'm sorry." He murmured.

Hermione shifted so that she was cuddled up next to him, her head resting on his chest as she listened to his heart beat. "For what?"

"Everything." He confessed. "For Hogwarts, for after Hogwarts, for letting you marry Weasely." He paused and gave her a long look. "Which reminds me, why are you here and not with Weasely?"

"We divorced." She said with a shrug.

Draco rolled his eyes. "So I've heard, but why."

"He wanted kids and I didn't."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Funny, when we were engaged all you talked about was kids and how much you wanted to be a mother."

"Let me rephrase that, I didn't want to have kids with Ron Weasely." She corrected herself.

A smile small found its way onto Draco's face, "And who would you want to have kids with?"

"I was thinking about a certain bouncing ferret." Hermione replied with a devilish smile.

Draco leaned in and kissed her, savouring her the taste of her, and moaned as he snogged the woman he loved for the first time in years; they broke apart flushed and gasping for air. "Want to get engaged and actually get married this time Granger?"

"You going to run away like last time?" She asked in a soft tone laced with hurt.

"I'm not stupid enought to make the same mistake twice."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Really wanted to try my hand at these 5 and 1 formats for a fic so here it is I guess. Not sure the 1 actually fits very well, but whatever this was fun to write.


End file.
